Pixiq

Calibrate Your Monitor

Color control is one area where digital photography really scores. Ideally, your computer monitor should be set up to give accurate colors that match what is recorded by your camera, and products are available just for this purpose: A device called a colorimeter, that comes with its own software, lets you calibrate your screen on a regular basis (since screens can change over time) and is available from several different manufacturers.

Use Correct White Balance Setting

Sometimes on-screen colors in your photos don’t look right and it has nothing to do with the monitor. The reason is due to the type of light in which the photo was taken—different sources of light have different colors! For example, light from a bright blue sky can make snow look bluish; or pictures taken indoors with a mix of incandescent and fluorescent lamps can have a greenish hue. Your camera’s white balance control can adjust for the correct color at the time you take the photo, but it is also possible if a mistake is made to adjust color casts on the computer, especially if the file has been recorded using RAW format.

Use Software to Make Color Corrections

Many image-processing programs have a control to change hue and saturation. It is possible to remove all color (desaturation) and create a black and white image, or go the other way to exaggerate all colors, oversaturating the photo.

Photoshop Elements in the Full editing module has some very useful options for this purpose. The program can correct color casts automatically, or you can take control of managing the color. Using Enhance > Adjust Color, you will find options for Remove Color Cast and Adjust Color for Skin Tones that can effectively deal with many of the most common color cast problems. (Other programs have similar controls.) And the Color Variations option will display a selection of thumbnails that gives you an idea of what to expect from different color casts.

You can intervene directly to make color corrections using a Dropper tool that helps correct color casts. To explore this, select Remove Color Cast and click to activate: Your pointer becomes a Dropper that will neutralize overall color cast of the picture when you point and click it on areas that should be white, neutral gray, or black.

Select Adjust Color for Skin Tones and you can click on any skin area. Elements automatically adjusts the skin tones, but if you think you can do better manually, try the sliders for Tan and Blush.